The present invention relates to a side airbag apparatus with a side airbag cover for preventing the side airbag for restraining an occupant upon the side collision of the vehicle and the like from being inappropriately folded when it is stored in a casing.
The side airbag apparatus which allows an inflator to inflate the side airbag to the side of the occupant so as to be restrained thereby upon the side collision or rollover of the vehicle has been known. The aforementioned side airbag apparatus is built in a back portion of the seat, for example, and allows the side airbag to be inflated and deployed by the gas ejected from the inflator from the back portion between the occupant and the side wall of the vehicle body.
The aforementioned side airbag is generally folded to be stored in the casing built in the back portion of the seat. In order to maintain the folded shape of the airbag, the folded airbag is covered with the airbag cover so as to be stored in the casing.
The above-structured side airbag cover has been known as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-244895 (Patent Document 1).
A basic structure of the side airbag cover used for storing the side airbag in the folded state has been disclosed in the above prior art. The optimization of the side airbag cover demands an improvement of the airbag deployment stability as well as reduction in the amount of the base fabric required for forming the cover.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a side airbag cover which improves the side airbag deployment stability while reducing the amount of the base fabric required for forming the cover, and the side airbag apparatus employing the side airbag cover.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.